Kevin A. Menicoche

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just want to follow up on my Member’s statement with regard to the school playground in Fort Liard. Once again, I appreciate that the Minister had an opportunity to go to Fort Liard and visit the school and look at the playground. I would just like to ask just in general, what is the department’s policy on providing playgrounds for our schools, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just want to reiterate to the Minister that this is not exactly a new issue. It is about four years old that the playground got condemned. The urgency is to get something started this year, Mr. Speaker, and also some funding in the next fiscal year. Will the Minister commit to tell the DEA, to his staff, that this is a priority item and must be addressed as soon as possible? Thank you.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. [English translation not provided.]

Mr. Speaker, in 1993 the Assembly of First Nations declared the month of March to be Aboriginal Languages Month. Celebrations of aboriginal languages have occurred every year since. In the NWT the community teaching and learning centres are celebrating with a variety of events. In its press release to recognize this month, the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment assured the language communities that the GNWT is committed to continue its support of language and cultural activities.

The Department of Education, Culture and...

Mr. Speaker, I am glad to hear those reassurances from the Minister. My constituents will be pleased to hear that. As well, I would like to ask the Minister, come this spring, if he will come to the riding and we will do a bit of a tour to each community and discuss all the other Transportation related important projects. Mahsi cho.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I won’t be asking the Premier any questions. Mr. Speaker, my questions are actually for the Minister of Transportation just with regard to the commitment to get the section of Fort Providence junction towards Fort Simpson, I believe is Axe Handle, chipsealed in this coming fiscal year. I would just like to ask how much work has begun on the process of awarding the work or getting the work underway early in this spring. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I chose to raise this issue because it is, like I said, becoming two incidents within the last three months. It is quite disturbing to the family. Now they had to recover costs and worry about that, but initially I still do not understand. The family still does not understand why the spouse who was injured or very sick was not assigned or designated an eligible spouse. That is the issue I would like to raise with the Minister. I would like her to check into it. Maybe there is an internal memorandum that has to go around and say, look, are we applying the policy...

With regard to the non-medical escorts, who makes the actual call to have the non-medical escorts accompany… In the two cases that I spoke about in my Member’s statement, there were spouses there, Mr. Speaker. So who would actually authorize or designate these non-medical escorts to travel along with the spouse in the medevac plane and/or immediately soon thereafter? Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to return to item 7 on the Order Paper.

---Unanimous consent granted,

Mr. Speaker, constituents want assurance that work will be completed with all the talk of the Deh Cho Bridge and debt wall, et cetera. I think the Premier did indicate in yesterday’s Minister’s statement that this coming fiscal year there will be no impact. I would just like to get the Minister’s assurance as well. There are several other Transportation contracts for the Nahendeh riding that work will proceed this coming year. Once again, I urge to get these contracts out of the gate as early as possible. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. [English translation not provided.]

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I would like to talk about the concerns of constituents regarding the lack of escorts for people who must be sent to hospital on medevac flights.

A constituent told me that at Christmas her husband was rushed to Yellowknife by plane in critical condition. He was in distress and not able to think or speak clearly. She was very worried and concerned about her husband, so she drove to Yellowknife as soon as possible. She reached the hospital some eight hours later. The doctor in charge was very relieved to see...